Well, money doesn’t grow on trees, but it can on niche websites!
Niche websites can turn out to be a profitable business if everything is correctly. However, this undoubtedly takes a lot of time. You need to nurture it like a child, from design to content, everything is to be carefully chosen and strategized.
Here are six effective tips to help you make your niche website a success:
Look at average monthly searches
This goes without saying, it is always beneficial to optimize a website for a niche that is in high demand. So how do you find which niche is perfect for your website? Google keyword planner is a great tool.
Open Google Keyword Planner and search for the topic that you want to convert into a niche. Next, click on the keywords suggestions tabs, and voila! You’ll get a list of keywords with their average monthly searches. Choose the ones that have the highest monthly searches. From there, search at least five interrelated niche keywords for your website. This will help you rank for a range of keywords. When customers see your website popping up in the top SERPs, they will often land on your website, thus boosting your traffic and profits, and satisfying your very goal.
Decide the niche
Once you’re done with the keywords, combine them all to decide on your niche. Let’s understand this with the help of an example. Suppose, you want to make a website over mixed martial arts, just because you hold enough knowledge on the subject, and want to teach martial arts.
Look on the keywords planner and other related tools like Wordtracker for suggested keywords. You will find MMA and UFC among many. And surprisingly, you’ll find that they’ve been searched more than mixed martial arts. MMA is an abbreviated form of mixed martial arts. UFC stands for Ultimate Fighting Championship. The people who searched for UFC are more inclined towards watching the events rather than getting involved in fighting. So now you have a niche. It goes without saying that building a site focused on UFC is going to get more hits, simply because this niche is being searched more. Though you started with mixed martial arts, you ended up with UFC. This is how a niche is selected.
Look for competitors
Keep your friends close, but your competitors closer! The best way would be to find your competitors using Google search. Just Google your selected keywords and look for the websites that are sure to give you tough competition.
Follow them closely regarding the kind of design they have. Are they following the best practices in terms of design, how is their site performing in terms of speed, which blogging platform are they using and such other useful questions.
Look at their social following. How many people are following the website? What do the testimonials say and so on?
Lastly, investigate the revenue model of the website. How are they earning? What are the various tactics they are using?
Compile all this useful information in the form of an excel spreadsheet. Enter the information for each website clearly specifying the pros and cons of each aspect. It is essential that you identify the negative points of your competitors’ websites and make sure that no such down points exist on your website. These are the places where if you excel, you would win the direct customers.
Build audience prior to your launch
Bring the excitement and spread the awareness. Wouldn’t you like to have 1,000 people surfing your website the day of its launch? You can do this by building an audience in advance.
Keep sending newsletters to your prospective customers about the timelines of your websites and be honest with them- this builds trust. If done properly, you can build a curious list of customers who are waiting for the launch of your website.
Work on the content
Now that you have a basic strategy in place, it’s time to focus on content. Look for intriguing and engaging content ideas that will keep your users hooked.
The best way to do this is to look for content ideas from high profile blogs and sought after topics. Don’t ever copy content line by line, but curate from a dozen of sources and create an outstanding piece out of what you’ve found.
Additionally, set up an editorial calendar. Don’t just publish when you feel like it. Research the best times for publishing for your audience and plan accordingly.
Increase conversion rate
Conversion rate optimization is important. This can be done by adjusting and customizing your on-page content keeping in mind your targeted audiences’ likes and preferences.
Whenever a new user subscribes to your mailing list – makes a purchase, or does anything that shows his interest in your services/product/website – congrats, you have boosted your conversion rate. Keep playing around with your site until you get to a rate that’s profitable and you’re happy with.
Sheza Gary has been a Project Strategist since 2009 and has been involved in the launching of startups and tech companies in New York for over 5 years. She has keen interest in writing her own experiences about business plans and upcoming business supporting technologies. She loves public speaking.
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